Is Twitter Heading Down The Myspace Road?
// February 3rd, 2009 // Technology
You guys know I love Twitter… as a matter of fact, most of you think I live on Facebook because my Twitter account is connected to my Facebook status updates. BUT, I’ve recently started feeling a bit the same about Twitter as I did when I was ready to abandon Myspace. Why? What has happened? Here’s my thoughts on the future of Twitter, I may be way off but hear me out!
Twitter is about connecting and building community. Myspace was about finding friends and building community as well (before it became a booty call station). However, Myspace became a game about who had the most friends. I’m guilty… I had 1800+ friends and really only talked/connected with a hundred or so… I was overwhelmed with trying to keep up with them all and usually missed the “real” friends because of the noise of unknown “friends”. It wasn’t long after reaching that 1800+ mark that I “cleaned” house and narrowed my connections back down to people that I knew or people that I had common interests with. Even so, I eventually looked at Myspace as a chore- and have since moved on to Facebook. The whole Facebook vs. Myspace saga is another post, I just choose Facebook over Myspace.
So how do I see Twitter as another Myspace? The “followers” war. Once again, I’ve played this game too. I started following anyone who followed me even if I had nothing in common with them. As the numbers started to grow I slowly disconnected with the people that I had truly connected with. Then I started seeing people post stuff like “If you don’t follow me back, you will be dropped… Fair is Fair!”. That’s not a joke.
First off people, get a clue. A follower doesn’t mean a friend- friendships are built by talking and getting to know one another. There are many folks that I respond too and converse with but don’t follow and the same with other folks who respond to me. Why do I follow people who’s sole goal is to gain followers then 90% of their tweets are the song they are listening to. Really? Really? Ego trips are quickly taking over Twitter… one guy is following 12,000+ people and he has 11,000+ followers, yet he doesn’t talk with his followers rather he spouts out information and 9 times out of 10 it’s a retweet of someone else that everyone is already following. I’m seeing this more and more daily which is why I’ve realized that soon we are all going to get tired of the game and look for the next manageable communication/media breakthrough.
This is how I relate Twitter to Myspace… Myspace and Facebook are basically the same idea, Facebook was executed better by giving the user more control over their connections and privacy… the interface was also very user friendly. Twitter is basically an open & easy interface place to connect. However with mass followers it gets hard to manage (I say hard to manage, I’m talking about the average user- see below to see how I manage Twitter sanely!!!)
I know I’m stepping on some of the toes of the “Twitter Elite”. If it feels like I’m stepping on your toes, I’m sorry but I just don’t think you get the idea of building community- whether online or off. Give me some info, give me a reason to be your “follower”!
This applies to me as well. I try to be myself on Twitter, I post through out the day with stuff I’m working on, music I like, food I love, interesting links I find, and respond to those I may be able to help. If I’m not offering you anything then unfollow me… it’s ok… I’m not going to be offended!!!
I still love Twitter but mainly because I’ve found a way to manage it. If you are overwhelmed with Twitter or feel like you are missing conversations then I encourage you to check out Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck let’s you create groups… I have the following groups setup: local/real friends, music related friends, marketing/interactive friends, then the big group of “All”. 
I have hope for Twitter but we’ve got to get a grip on the egos and the serial followers to create a great and useful community. Who’s on board?
No Responses to “Is Twitter Heading Down The Myspace Road?”
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using Tweetdeck or Twhirl is a must to keep you sane! Otherwise you quickly become overwhelmed with all the tweets.
I definitely see the connection. I’ve seen so many posts lately about people being offended about whether or not people follow them. It’s all so silly, I think.
I can be pretty picky about the apps I use and I just don’t really like the Tweetdeck interface, so I currently only follow people I’m really interested in because I just can’t sift through it all.
I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’s as bad as all that. With Tweetdeck you can follow a ton of *topics* on Twitter, without having to follow a bunch of *people*. There’s the difference.
I probably spent the first couple of months trying to build my followers, a la MySpace, before I realized that it really doesn’t matter. If I get a new follower now, I’ll read their last 10-15 tweets, click through to their blog/website and make a call of whether or not I really want to follow them back. If I don’t, and they drop me, well fairy nuff. Life’s too short, etc.
I follow a lot of people who work in the same field as me, and a lot of people who live locally, and that works out great. Some are more active than others, but there’s a core group of maybe 30 or so that I feel a real sense of community with, most of whom I’ve never actually met in person. (and hey, you’re in that group…so well done!)
I can say with all honestly that the presidential debates, the Superbowl and just an ordinary Tuesday night like this one have all been improved by Twitter – and that’s not something I could ever have said about MySpace. Even if I include Lily Allen friending me.
Jeremy- Tweetdeck saved me.
Kat- I felt the same about Tweetdeck at first… The interface is WAY boxy/bulky and I hope they figure that out!
Simon- I won’t say it’s bad yet, it just seems it’s going that way. It’s a lot of noise– but you are right, it’s easy to control!!! Unfollow, right? I totally agree. It’s something I can’t quite put my finger on and the only real connection was the familiar feeling I had with Myspace a few years back. Thanks for including me!!!
All of you guys are in my “read” columns!!!
Thanks for the thoughts!
Jason-I feel you on this one. I have pretty much abandoned twitter for the same reason. Since you introduced me to ping, my twitter account gets my updates. I prefer facebook as well (less high schoolish than myspace) and I only connect to people I know. I recently deleted some folks that I randomly connected with. Twitter is so overwhelming that it’s not as easy to weed through the masses. I tried to use Tweetdeck but kept getting an error message that my computer wouldn’t use beta or something. It’s been a while.
MySpace was the training wheels for my Facebook experience. I am much more private with Facebook than I ever was with MySpace. This moderation (and moderation really is the key to everything) has impacted my Twitter experience even further. My updates are protected and I only follow “real” people (plus Michael Scott).
Michele- Tweetdeck is definitely a bulky and some times testy tool… I dig Ping.fm still but miss some of the conversation of replies so I’ve used it more as an announce tool lately. Definitely think there is hope for Twitter, just gonna take some time to weed out the “noise”.
Glen- Michael Scott isn’t real?
I think the HUGE difference between the undeniable faults in MySpace and Twitter is that you don’t HAVE to follow everyone back on Twitter.
Let’s say you have 5,000 followers. On Myspace that would kill you to keep up with, but on Twitter you have the discretion to follow them back or not. So even the “elites” of the Twitter world can still keep up with their own followings with 20,000+ followers.
The option for individual users to not be bombarded with friends requests and instead opt in and out of who they follow, in my opinion, will save Twitter from going down the road you described above.
Agree or disagree?
Jared-
Agreed to a point… but I think I’m more focused on those who love numbers which seems to be an increasing group of folks these day. The follow-back “rules” are what are silly… granted you don’t have to follow them back I do get that. It just seems that it is more important to have followers than to have quality of conversation.
Totally agree we have better control over who we follow and who we don’t- but I have a weak spot for wanting to connect with everyone (which I could never do).
Then again, it could be the people that I have chosen to follow?!
Thanks for the comment- great points!
Jason-There is escalating competition on Twitter for followers. Lately, there are so many who are following me who are of the get rich quick style of marketing, that I’ll never follow them back. Then there are those who are just using Mr. Tweet and Twitter Grader and focusing on how those things help them achieve an arbitrary ‘score’. I like the connection that comes from following you, Simon, Lyn, Andra, Dan, Jared, Heather and all the other #CHS group. There is context to our convo. That’s what makes it a convo.
Well said.
Cheryl- very much agreed. There is value in local connections and the #chs area. For me, only being here a little more than a year it’s been great meeting people that have the same interests while still keeping in close contact with friends and partners in Nashville.
Curious to see how Twitter continues to evolve and how different it will be in just a few months (maybe weeks!).
Thanks for the comment!
I totally agree with this assessment. I signed up on twitter because my local radio djs were always talking about it and how funny Bart Millard’s tweets were. At first I actually was automatically clicking follow to follow every single person who was following me. I quickly learned my error when one tweeter took up two whole pages, and every other conversation was virtually impossible to follow quickly. I now only follow the artists that I really care about, and a couple of folks I met on the journey. Hopefully this will take a turn for the better soon, and egos will take a back seat.
Gillian- I think you started where most of us did… wanted to see what people were saying- then we jump in the conversation, all 26,845 of them!
Thanks for the comments!
Great Post Jason.
One of the reason’s I like twitter is because you can actually talk to your followers. now the tough thing is actually knowing who really is following you to follow you or just for the numbers.
It could get out of hand quick. I would also agree using tweetdeck, its great!.
I would say that twitter is a completely different animal. I have actually made connections (in person) and have met people I never would have without being on twitter. I don’t follow or have followers in the thousands, but I do love tweetdeck for grouping locals/favorites to converse with.
My biggest problem of late with twitter is people only tryng to promote their business and not actually contributing anything else. IE: you follow me, I follow you back, you DM your website to me saying you can get me 100′s of sales leads, I then unfollow you, the end. Also, those who link to their website with every tweet.
Anyway, myspace it is not. Getting out of control, maybe. But I still love my twitter.
Keith
Of course, this entire post and comments thread could just as easily be re-purposed for the FriendFeed service/application. I’ve been spending time moving back and forth between FF and Twitter (via TweetDeck) of late. While they are different, overlaps allow them to not be mutually exclusive.
Of course, this entire thread having been said, who has the time to spend cultivating community with these tools and services anyway?
My thought process is still going on all this. I definitely know it’s not the same as Myspace, but was mostly referring to it losing it’s “cool”.
There are so many tools popping up and I believe Twitter is still here and is definitely still my favorite but the aggressive sales/marketing/follower “crap” could drive new users away. Right?
Thanks for hanging with my thoughts on all this!!!